Rare Child
by ScreamingMayday
Summary: Yukiko And Kakashi Have Known Each Other For Awhile Now. Even Though They've Been Friends For So Long, Kakashi Had Never Revealed What Laid Behind That Mask Of His. Will He Ever?


**_Rare Child_**

Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Any Of The Naruto Characters.

~*~

'_Dammit Kakashi!_' Yukiko thought, throwing herself into the way of a kunai that was hurtling towards him while he was distracted by unmasking an illusion.

"Ah!" Yukiko bit back the pain as much as she could but the kunai had been coated in poison. It was impossible to suppress her cry. Kakashi turned, his one eye widening as he realized what she'd just done.

"Yukiko-"

"Don't talk to me, just get that damn ninja!" He always got so sad when Yukiko got hurt. Couldn't he focus for just once?

Yukiko didn't waste any time waiting for Kakashi to react to her command. Instead, she took action. Putting some chakra into her efforts, she had the ninja by the back of his neck. A kunai to his neck sent him swiftly to death. Yukiko dropped the ninja and stumbled back as the loss of blood began to affect her brain.

"Yukiko, I'm sorry. I don't know how I could be so stupid." Kakashi's voice seemed very far away. You were vaguely aware of his arms picking you up and then everything went black.

Yukiko slowly opened her eyes. Everything around her seemed blurry and sterile. In the distance, she could hear voices exchanging different reports while next to her, there was a constant hum of machinery. Yukiko knew in an instant that she was in a hospital.

'_But how long have I been here?_' She wondered. Yukiko sat up slowly, feeling every ache and pain in her body. It wasn't hard for her to guess that'd she'd probably been there longer then she should have.

"Dammit Kakashi." She said out loud to herself, thumping her head against the wall behind her. It was his fault that she was here after all. If only he'd been paying attention to that kunai.

Kakashi was Yukiko's closest alley and in many ways, her best friend. The two of them did everything together as they had been for the last five months. But five months ago wasn't the first time Yukiko met Kakashi. Many years ago, she was best friends with one of his closest alleys. Yukiko always knew Kakashi vaguely, but she'd never really had a chance to get to know him. When her friend and his alley was murdered, Yukiko came out to Kohana for the warrior's funeral. Kakashi and her had exchanged words, soon becoming close friends themselves. Yukiko left Kohana only two weeks after the funeral but came back a year later to find that Kakashi and her clicked even more then before. The two of them had lots to talk about at first, what with him having gotten a genin team. She had learned that one of his students, Sasuke Uchia, had abandoned his village while Naruto had gone off to train with Jiriya, and Sakura had gone on the train with the villages Hokage, Tsunade. Yukiko had many stories to tell of her travels rather then specific people. When she'd left Kohana, Yukiko meant to go to every hidden village to try and learn and understand their ways a little better. With some it was more difficult to get in the others but in the end she gained access to every one. She couldn't tell Kakashi everything of course because of some the villages' rules against giving away information to the outside, but she could tell him enough to keep him interested. Lying in bed and thinking about how close the two of them had began made Yukiko begin to wonder...

'_Will he ever show me what's under that mask?_' It was a mystery that puzzled her from the day she first saw Kakashi. Why did he wear that mask? What was he so intent on keeping a secret? Not once had she questioned him on the matter in fear that if she did he would be less likely to ever take it off in front of her in the end. Then the door opened, startling Yukiko out of her thoughts.

"Yukiko?" Kakashi's voice said. Yukiko breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah. Hi."

"You're awake."

"Mm-hm."

"You've been out for a few days."

"Oh."

"I just thought you might be wondering."

"I was." An awkward silence followed.

Because she had gotten to know Kakashi so well that he hardly needed to tell her what he was thinking the two of them were beginning to run out of new and interesting things to talk about. This normally wasn't a problem, the silence between the two was usually peaceful and quite. Now though, it was just awkward. Yukiko's gaze dropped to Kakashi's hand, holding a bouquet of flowers. He followed her eyes to the source and looked embarrassed.

"I thought you were going to wake up tomorrow." He said in explanation. Yukiko just smiled.

"Stop standing over there by the door. Come here." He obeyed and she continued, "Do you know if I can leave now that I'm better?"

"No, I could ask though."

"Could you do that?"

"Sure." Kakashi left the flowers on the bedside table and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

As soon as he was gone, Yukiko jumped out of bed and pulled on her clothes that were neatly folded at the foot of the bed. She made to climb out the window then stopped and looked at the flowers. As an afterthought, she plucked one off from the rest and tucked it into her hair before climbing out the window and running away from the hospital as fast as she could. Yukiko scaled building after building, climbing higher and higher. It wasn't long before she'd reached her destination: the hokage's tower. From up there she could see the entire city in all it's glory. Grinning, Yukiko leaned her back against one of the statues that adorned the tower to wait for Kakashi. After all, it wasn't the first time they'd been up here. She didn't have to wait long. Hearing a door slam off in the distance, the smile returned to your face.

"Hey Kakashi." Yukiko said before he could start yelling. His reply was as angry as she'd expected.

"Are you crazy? You can't just run out of a hospital like that. Do you have any idea how much blood you lost? Yukiko, are you even listening to me?" She scoffed.

"You sound like my dad." She told him in reply. Standing up so all the wind rushed around her, throwing up her hair, she turned to face him, "Seriously Kakashi, I don't understand why you're getting so worked up about it. Don't pretend you haven't done the same thing."

Kakashi just looked at her head on. There was no hint of him backing down, he stared her straight in the eyes. Finally, he spoke.

"Yukiko, there's something I want to show you."

"What's that?" But he was already walking away. Yukiko followed him without hesitation, down the steps and into a small windowless room. He closed the door behind her and said, "It's safe in here." As if that was supposed to explain anything."

For her part, Yukiko was beginning to feel unimpressed.

"Is this all you wanted to show me? Kakashi this is kind of stupid, I'm not going to lie." She looked at him with doubt. Doubt that was quickly erased as he reached up to grab the fabric of the edge of his mask and then pulled it down.

For several seconds, Yukiko couldn't say anything. Kakashi didn't speak either, he was busy watching her, trying to read her reactions behind her blank stare. It was so easy now to understand why he hid his face behind a mask. In all her life, Yukiko had never seen a more beautiful face then Kakashi's. His skin was perfectly clear and his lips held not the slightest sign of any kind of pain. All together his face was so perfect and so brilliant. He had to hid it, as a ninja it attracted far to much attention. Without the mask, people would be constantly watching him and whispering. Then, she felt something click and smiled.

"Took you long enough to realize you could trust me." Yukiko's lips met his in a passionate kiss.


End file.
